Page 10

to demand respect and care from their physicians,
chiropractors, therapists and other professionals.

When I decided to go to medical school, I had the

same anti-physician bias: I believed that all physicians
were conservative Republicans with moralizing attitudes.
I remember giving myself pep talks to help me fit into
the conservative aspects of medical school. I have learned
that my original beliefs were, in many if not most cases,
quite wrong. Through medical school and my subsequent
private practice, I have been amazed at the number of
physicians who will provide excellent medical care without
judgments.

When I started my internal medicine practice, I became

an associate with another physician also specializing in
internal medicine. Like most internists, his practice was
composed primarily of older patients, and the kind of folks
who were coming to see me might be a shock to his office
staff and to his patients. He did a wonderful job talking
to his staff, explaining, "Our job is to take care of sick
people; we don't care about anything else." He explained
that the sickest patients should be seen first, and briefed
the staff about how to deal with patients who have a
hard time being appropriate in a doctor's office. My staff,
the other physicians I work with, and the hospitals where
I admit patients (including a Catholic hospital), have all
been wonderfully accepting.

Nonetheless, there were problems. One of my

associate's patients was sitting in the waiting room when
an obviously transsexual patient of mine came in to see
me. A couple of months later, my associate's patient
had a stroke, and discovered when his family called
that I was on call that weekend. He refused to go to the